Springtime smiles

Another night of card making and talking at Christine's, though maybe I should say talking and card making.  'Cos we do a lot of talking!

Christine had a challenge to make an Easter card using SU's Regal palette.  Not what you'd call Easter colours, or even spring colours for that matter, but she did a beauty.  She masked off areas and stamped and sponged with More Mustard.  Then, she moved her post its, and sponged again using Always Artichoke.  It was really amazing!

I was influenced by her colour palette, and did this quick card, using the new SU paper.  It's really lovely.  Usually I like only one or two patterns in the dp pack, but this time it's the reverse -- I dislike only 2 or 3 patterns.  Gonna be way useable!

Oh, by the way.  The Stampers' Sampler comes out on April 1, and I have a three page spread highlighting my texture plates.  Check it out!

Another cool tip

The internet if full of brilliant people.  I should pay more attention to the "who" and the "where", but I get all caught up in the "how stinkin' clever is that?".  Here's one of those:

Sorry for the crooked image!

Here's the cool thing!  The "lace" is made from the Medallion background stamp.  I kid you not.
Stamp the medallion.  I used Crumbcake and rolled the edges in Soft Suede.  Stamp on white.  Fussy cut the edges, and cut out a wedge (mine was about a 1/6 of the circle) and the centre.  Now, get nasty with it.  distress it, crumple it, run it through your crimper lots -- you want to break the fibres down.  When it's good and pliable, run a strip of This to That tape on the card, and pleat the lace strip as you go along the tape.  Don't press down because you will need to spread the pleats out along the tape. When you're happy, burnish it with your finger.

I used the Vintage Spring paper from SU and the bench stamp from Have a Seat.  The Hello is from Scenic Route.  It needed something, so I added a line of Silver Glass glitter from Stampin Up.

Red and Black Collage

Sometimes, you just don't know how something will turn out.  I had a card base, I had a rub on.  I put the two together, and thought, "Well, now what?"

I had made the little flower when at my play date with Christine.  (Sorry, I saw a YouTube tutorial about it, but I don't know whose).  I took a 6" piece of Stampin' Up's Riding Hood Red grosgrain ribbon, folded it in half, and basted along the selvedge edges.  I pulled the basting up tight, tied it, and then cut into the ribbon about 1/4" - 3/8" inches.  Pull at the cut edges to get the feathery threads to stick out, add a brad, and -- ta da!  Another version of a ribbon flower.

Anyway, the flower was on my desk, staring at me.  I had made a rosette for this card, but wasn't feeling it.  I tried the flower, and that was that!  There was a scrap of red organza in my ribbon basket, and an even smaller scrap of this sticky-backed black check ribbon from Offray.  Done and done!  The Quietfire Designs diamond border in Onyx and Riding Hood Red stamped dictionary birds from Stampington finished it.

A Thank You

I love the days I get to play with Christine!  It's a great sharing time.  This time I learned another way to make ribbon roses (I'll show them off on a card soon), how to emboss a "hole" so that you end up with an embossed frame around an image and we looked at some great sites.  As for getting much done ... well, this card looks simple, but I made heavy work of it!

I used the Sweet Stitches paper and fabric from Stampin' Up.  I chose a corner of the dp, matched the 'stitches' with So Saffron c/s and added a layered label with a sentiment from the "You're a Gem" set.  I made the fabric by taking a 2.5 x 6" piece of fabric, teasing the edges to fray them, folding it in half lengthwise, basting, and pulling the basting tight.  I popped a fabric-covered brad in the middle.  Cute, no?